This invention relates to a method of operating a home elevator which is installed in a private house or the like.
In recent years, two-household habitation has increased along with the upper age bracket, and housing sites have become smaller areas due to this situation, resulting in taller private houses. In this regard, elevators for private houses suitable for a 3- or 4-storeyed building and a capacity of 3 or so have been increasingly in demand in order to relieve the burden and trouble in ascending and descending stairs, and an appropriate operating method for the elevators has been requested.
FIG. 3 is a diagram of the conventional system of an elevator in which an operating method in the prior art and an operating method in an embodiment of this invention are performed, while FIG. 4 is a diagram of the internal arrangement of a control panel 1 in FIG. 3. Referring to FIG. 3, the conventional elevator system includes the control panel 1, a motor 2, a hoist 3, a counterweight 4, a cage 5, a cage operation panel 6 which is furnished with floor call buttons, and hall buttons 7-10 which have no direction, one hall button being arranged at the hall of each floor. Referring to FIG. 4, the control panel 1 includes a central processing unit (hereinbelow, abbreviated to "CPU") 11, a group of signal lines 12 having an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc., a read-only memory (hereinbelow, abbreviated to "ROM") 13 in which an elevator operation program containing steps for determining the running direction of the cage 5 are kept stored, a random access memory (hereinbelow, abbreviated to "RAM") 14 which temporarily stores calculated results etc., and an input/output interface unit 15 which executes the signal conversions (such as voltage level conversion, analog/digital conversion, and serial/parallel conversion) between the CPU 11 and the elevator devices such as the cage operation panel 6, the hall buttons 7-10 at the respective floor halls, and the motor 2.
The operation of the elevator constructed as described above is outlined as follows: When a user in the cage 5 depresses any floor call button of the cage operation panel 6, or when a user to get on the cage 5 depresses any of the nondirectional hall buttons 7-10 at the halls of the respective floors, the CPU 11 of the control panel 1 senses the floor call button signal or hall button signal of the depressed button and accepts it into the RAM 14 through the input/output interface unit 15 so as to register a floor call signal or a hall call signal. The floor call signal or hall call signal registered in the RAM 14 is not cancelled before it is responded to by the cage 5. The CPU 11 continually and repeatedly executes the program of the running direction determination steps, which is the subroutine of the operation program stored in the ROM 13, to monitor the presence of any call signal. In the presence of the call signal, the CPU 11 processes this signal and sets the running direction of the cage 5 of the elevator in accordance with the running direction determination steps. Further, the CPU 11 drives the motor 2 through the input/output interface unit 15 in conformity with the processed result and runs the cage 5 in the set direction so as to respond to the registered floor call signal or hall call signal.
FIG. 5 is a program flow chart showing the running direction determination steps in the prior-art method of operating the elevator. The numerals in the figure designate deciding or processing steps, respectively. The flow chart will be described herebelow.
In the presence of any call signal, while the cage 5 is standing by at a certain floor without having a direction, the running direction of this cage is set at the direction of the call signal (steps 20-21-27). In the presence of a floor call or hall call signal in front of the cage 5 when this cage has a running direction, this running direction is held as it is (steps 20-21-31-26). Accordingly, calls before the frontward destination of the cage are ignored, while frontward calls are responded to with preference over a rearward floor call or hall call (frontward call preferring method) till the response of the cage 5 to the highest or lowest floor of the frontward call signals is carried out. Thereafter, in the presence of a floor call or hall call signal in rear of the position of the cage 5, this cage has the running direction reversed (steps 20-21-31-25-29) so as to respond to the previously ignored rearward call signal. In the absence of any call signal, the cage 5 is set to be nondirectional (steps 20-30) and is caused to stand by at the floor at which it is at a stop.
By the way, the step 25 is the step of deciding whether or not the running direction may be reversed. In order to hold the running direction without the reversal thereof even when a frontward call signal is registered with some delay, the answer "YES" of the decision is not generated before the lapse of a predetermined time interval with respect to the stop time of the cage 5 at the hall. Besides, the answer "YES" is generated when the cage 5 has come to the highest floor or lowest floor.
In the prior-art method of operating the elevator, the steps for determining the running direction of the cage 5 are constructed as stated above. Therefore, they have the advantage that the cage 5 responds in a predictable sequence though a difference of wait times is involved, as follows: By way of example, in a case where the user depresses the hall button 8 or 9 and calls the cage 5 at the hall of the intermediate floor 3F or 2F in order to go downstairs, the cage 5 assumed to already have the up direction ascends to the highest floor of the call signals and responds at this floor, and it reverses the running direction and comes back.
Meanwhile, the home elevator which is installed in a private house or the like has a capacity of 3 or so and is sometimes put into dedicated service, for example, a case where the cage 5 is exclusively used for carrying baggages downstairs by the user who has got on the cage 5 at the intermediate floor 2F or 3F. Besides, any urgent business matter might occur. Even on such an occasion, if the cage 5 has the up running direction and there is any call signal in front of the cage 5, this cage runs upwards with the running direction held as it is. Therefore, the prior-art method has the problem that the user cannot immediately go downstairs on the occasion.